ELDORADO 187 



neighbor in the absence of the "steel, flint and punk," 

 to build the fire each morning in the old red or log 

 school house, where the desks were supported by pegs 

 driven in the wall, and long benches were used for 

 seats, and where the birch and ruler took the place of 

 moral suasion. Since our pioneer days steamships have 

 largely taken the place of sailing vessels. Our nation 

 has increased in population from twenty to eighty 

 millions. Two great wars have been waged and slav- 

 ery abolished throughout the Union. The Remington, 

 Springfield and Mauser rifles have taken the place of 

 the muzzle loader with a flint lock that had to be 

 primed from the powder horn, and sometimes would 

 flash in the pan. Our flag, the emblem of freedom, 

 floats over millions of our fellowmen in distant lands 

 and islands of the sea, to lead them on and up to a 

 better and nobler condition of physical and intellectual 

 life. But little more than a half century ago the vast 

 region between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific 

 ocean, acquired by treaty from Mexico, was almost 

 as little known as the heart of Africa. Hunters and 

 trappers told wonderful stories of personal adven- 

 tures in the mountains and in California, described as 

 "a land of enchantment, where it was always spring 

 and summer, the rivers choked with salmon and the 

 plains swarming with game." Farnham's "Travels in 

 California," published in 1844, was considered as the 

 exponent of all that was then known of the interior 

 of California. He said, "it was a wilderness of groves 

 and lawns, broken by deep and rich ravines. Along 

 the ocean is a world of vegetable beauty, on the moun- 

 tain sides are the mightiest trees of the earth, on the 

 heights are the eternal snows lighted by volcanic fires. 



